Spyro the Dragon 4: Flashback of a Lifetime
by Unreal Dreams Studio
Summary: Have you ever wondered why Spyro didn't have any parents, how he came to know Sparx, where Ripto actually came from, why Spyro was the only young dragon in the Dragon Worlds or even why there were so few eggs in the first Spyro game? Find out all of this and more in my prequel to Spyro. It's my first fanfic, it's half-finished - I WILL finish it if there are people who want me to.
1. Introduction - Author's Note

Dear Reader,

Thank you for looking at my Spyro fanfic. All feedback is greatly appreciated – even if it is negative. I have half-completed this fanfic to see what people say about it – as you can see, the last few chapters are empty; this is because I have written the whole plot and divided it into chapters, and I will write them up if there is at least one person who likes my story and would like to know what happens next. Without giving too much away, I would like to say that the last chapters are probably the most exciting!

I look forward to any feedback and I hope you enjoyed my fanfic


	2. Chapter 1 - First, a Dream

===Chapter 1: First, a Dream===

Moonlight spilled across Avalar, casting long shadows of trees across the dark-looking, thick grass. Silence ruled in the air, disturbed only by a low humming noise coming from the shadows, where the golden glow of a dragonfly illuminated a small, purple shape of a dragon sleeping by the water under a tall tree, so thick with leaves that no moonlight could get through them. It was a pleasant evening in the Summer Forrest and only a gentle, warm breeze dared to disturb the still, mirror-like surface of the river. All was perfectly still, so still that it would send anyone to sleep in an instant. Still, that is, apart from a sudden commotion from among the bushes. A rustling sound erupted and someone's voice broke the spell of a perfect Summer Forrest night.

"Spyro! Spyro!" – the voice shouted, unnecessarily loud.

The birds sleeping in the trees gave a confused, sleepy squeak of protest. Spyro sat up instantly, his mind racing to remember where he is or what he is supposed to be doing. For a moment, he thought he's on Midnight Mountain, at the brink of confronting the creepy Sorceress, before he remembered that he's just resting by the gateway to Glimmer in Avalar's homeworld, the Summer Forrest.

"Hey, can't you keep it quiet? It's the middle of the night!" – said Spyro, before giving himself such a long stretch that it made the illusion of being a little longer even after he sat back down again, still yawning.

Fluttering eagerly, the little fairy would have collapsed, tired and panting, onto the cold, hard ground if Spyro hadn't caught her with his right paw. Delicately, he licked the sweat off her forehead.

"Are you alright, Elouise?" – Spyro asked the poor little fairy.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine! I'm just so excited because I managed to finally get the…I mean, my surprise is ready, Spyro! Sorry you had to wait so long, I just thought it would be ready for the evening." – replied the fairy, her whisper still abnormally loud with the excitement.

A gleam of curiosity flashed in Spyro's eyes. _Sheesh, if she's so super-charged, it has to be good_ – he thought.

"What is it, Elouise? Tell me!"

Grinning with pride, the fairy replied.

"Do you remember, sixty moons ago…what you asked me for?"

Spyro's heart beat a little faster.

"Y' mean, to find out how I was born, and where I know Sparx from and…"

"Yes! Yes! That's it! I finally recovered this from the Pool of Visions!"

"Go on! Tell me!" – said Spyro with excited impatience in his voice.

"Oh, I don't think so!" – replied the little fairy, to Spyro's puzzlement – "You're going to see for yourself, my purple dragon friend!"

Before Spyro could say or do anything, the little fairy, Elouise, shoved something into his mouth so hard that he swallowed it immediately, without meaning to. So fast did she do that, Spyro didn't even have time to see what it was. Bitterness filled his mouth, making a shiver go down his spine and twisting his face into a rather strange expression.

"Ugh. What on earth was that? Couldn't you at LEAST as…" – Spyro started, but Elouise, completely unbothered, gave the same thing to Sparx immediately. Despite himself, he ate it, partly for Spyro – he didn't want to leave him alone – and partly out of curiosity. As he swallowed it, his glow changed to blue, then green and back to golden again.

"It's a Dream Candy – the Dreamweavers made it for us once. It lets…" – Elouise started explaining, but Spyro didn't hear the rest as his mind suddenly went cloudy, his vision blurred, Elouise's voice gaining strange echoes and basses in Spyro's head.

"Wh…Elouise, I…I…" – mumbled Spyro, but he didn't finish before he collapsed on the ground. A loud thud filled the air around the Summer Forrest river before the still, nightly quiet returned again, the warm, gentle breeze muting Spyro's steady breathing, the moonlight illuminating a little fairy sitting next to an apparently-sleeping purple dragon with his faithful dragonfly friend laying on his chest.


	3. Chapter 2 - Flood of the Gnorcs

===Chapter 2: Flood of the Gnorcs===

Thick black clouds hovered innocently over a tiny homeworld. The air was thick and heavy with the stench of acid, rusting metal and sweat – so off-putting and sour was the smell that Spyro's windpipe shut and refused to open for a second, but then slowly released its grip as it remembered that Spyro needs to breathe – as if it had a mind of its own. Fat, green creatures swarmed across a face of metal, pouring in and out of a few lone portals, shoving and pushing past one another. Spyro just stood there, dozens of Gnorcs passing…right through his body, not feeling a thing, not realising that he's even there. Jaws hanging loose, he stood there, staring into space. Sparx interrupted.

"Come on, Spyro!" – he buzzed – "It's a dream! Remember Elouise giving us those funny bitter thingamajigs?"

Spyro remembered, alright, but that didn't help him to feel undisturbed when he was a ghost standing right in the midst of a beehive full of Gnorcs. Well, it wasn't really a beehive. It was Gnasty's Homeworld. Or so Spyro always knew it as.

"Is that what Gnasty's world looked like before I was born?" – said Spyro – "Anyhow, what have Gnorcs got to do with my past, buddy?"

Despite his casual fluttering, Sparx remained silent. He wished he knew the answer.

"Fellow Gnorcs!" – bellowed a voice above all the commotion. Spyro's gaze turned towards a bulky green figure standing in front of one of the portals, and he felt a knot in his stomach. He recognised that voice. He recognised that figure. It was no one other than Gnasty Gnorc himself.

"I have a bad feeling about this, buddy." – said Spyro.

"Oh, come on, Spyro! He can't hurt you here! And you've toasted him once already, haven't you?" – replied the small dragonfly.

"No, it's not that, Sparx."

Sparx the dragonfly knew that whenever his purple friend used his name, he was serious.

"Sorry, Spyro." – he said in a solemn tone.

All around them, the Gnorcs fell more and more silent until you could hear the buzz of a fly.

"For centuries we've been stuck here in this small speck of a world. For years we've been cramped here, barely able to breathe!" – boomed the voice of Gnasty Gnorc again.

Some of the Gnorcs around Spyro started whispering to each other.

"Ain't that the Gnorky Bash champion?" – said a voice from behind him.

"Sure is, I've still got a black eye after my competition with him." – said a Gnorc standing by Spyro's right wing (or, if you want to be precise, standing _on_ Spyro's right wing, which Spyro lifted off the ground as soon as he noticed). Sure, he had an eye patch and gaps in his teeth, making him look like a Gnorc pirate.

"An' 'e sure be' me in magic." – Spyro heard a small hooded Gnorc say. It sounded like a hiss, a whisper of the winds, not directed to anyone, so faint that Spyro was sure he was the only one who could hear it. Apart from Sparx, obviously, who was hovering uneasily above the head of the small Gnorc.

"Silence!" – shouted Gnasty.

For a moment, he sniffed the air, looking at the crowd below him. He seemed to scan the crowd – looking, looking, until his gaze seemed to fix with Spyro's, staring at him, into him. So uneasy it made the little dragon feel, he thought Gnasty could see him for a moment, and so he ducked behind the small Gnorc next to him, but Gnasty snorted and continued his speech.

"I, Gnasty Gnorc, the most powerful of you all, am about to…CHANGE YOUR LIVES!" – his bellow was so loud that it made poor Sparx shake in the air like a little, hovering, glowing bell.

With the wave of his sceptre (which, according to Spyro, had such a huge power crystal attached at the top that Gnasty is lucky it hadn't broken off, landed on his head and squashed him like an apple), Gnasty made huge bolts of lightning appear out of nowhere, raging in the acrid air, until they clasped together in the sky above, creating a portal unlike any portal Spyro's ever seen. Shades of red, purple, yellow and orange twisted and swirled together, whirling and swivelling, constantly being absorbed by the portal's centre, but never without replacement colours appearing out of thin air. Another wave of his sceptre and golden stairs appeared, leading from the centre of the homeworld right up to the portal. The Gnorc crowd gaped and oohed in awe.

"To the Dragon Realm!" – yelled Gnasty Gnorc.

Awkward silence filled the air.

"Ho' did 'e do it? 'he most isolated place in the 'ntire Magic Universe!" – whispered the small Gnorc in awe, apparently with a hint of hatred in his voice, as Spyro picked up.

"B-b-but, Your Bicepness, w-w-we can't stand fire an-and…" – said a squeaky voice from the crowd, clearly terrified.

"Ha! Who said we're going to fight?! We'll go in PEACE!" – replied Gnasty.

There was another stunned silence from the crowd.

"Yes. Peace. O' course y' will, y' slug-'arted blob." – hissed the small, mysterious Gnorc next to Spyro. Again, to no one in particular, it seemed.

"Your Bellyness, wouldn't Avalar be better?" – said a slim (for a Gnorc, of course), tall figure, puffing clouds of smoke as he spoke.

Spyro's heart skipped a beat.

"What?!" – bellowed Gnasty – "You want them nutjobs in the castles ruling over you and telling you what to do?"

"Well, I'd rather have nutjobs than dragons!" – replied the slimmish Gnorc.

Gnasty Gnorc boomed a loud laugh, so loud that Spyro thought the arch of a portal behind him is going to collapse in a heap of stones right then and there (not that it looked like it would stand there in the next ten years at most anyway).

"Them softies? They can't even deal with sheep pulling their ears when they sleep!" – said Gnasty.

Spyro gave a low growl at the arrogant Gnorc. No sheep ever dared to approach him when he slept. Well, apart from a certain black one that tried to drown him with a handful of water when he was sleeping, for no obvious reason, but he ate that one there and then. The small Gnorc next to him coughed purposefully. Confused, Spyro quickly silenced his growl.

"What about the Forgotten Worlds?" – said a voice from somewhere distant in the crowd.

Gnasty Gnorc's eyes narrowed.

"'course 'e won't go there. The Sorceress is more 'owerful than 'e is." – hissed the small Gnorc.

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY CHOICES?!" – yelled Gnasty Gnorc – "I have made a choice that will benefit us all, and we will go to the Dragon Worlds, right here, right now! If you don't like it, then stay here and rot!"

To the crowd's huge applause, the Gnorc ran up the steps, yelling "Who's with me?" and disappeared in the portal. After he has gone, havoc broke out and all Gnorcs started pushing their way towards the portal, shoving and pushing each other, stampeding over one another, until the entire crowd has gone through the portal. Well, almost the entire crowd. With his mouth hanging open, Spyro stood watching the last few of the Gnorcs disappear through the portal, droplets of sweat racing down his forehead. Even Sparx was silent. Only one Gnorc remained in this disgusting realm with the duo of friends – the small, mysterious, quiet Gnorc. Slowly, the Gnorc turned to the purple dragon. His face was dimmed with the shadow of his hood, and he spoke softly, still whispering.

"I see y've come from the future, young dragon. 'mpressive! Go on, get through the portal and find the truth of yer past, for how can one progress through his time if his past in shadow remains?" – Spyro stared at him.

"Why aren't you coming?" – he asked.

But the small Gnorc did not answer – his cape gave a glow of faint green and the little Gnorc turned transparent before disappearing right in front of Spyro's eyes. For a moment, he stood there in silence.

"Yippee! Let's go home, Spyro! Dragon World awaits!" – buzzed Sparx.

Grinning, Spyro fixed his eyes on the small dragonfly.

"Alright, buddy! But, you know, I seriously have a bad feeling about all this. Are you sure we should know what happened in the past? I mean…maybe some things aren't meant to be known? This is all getting creepy, dude." – he replied.

"Nonsense! And miss all the fun? Just forget the dark stuff, Spyro! I'll race you!" – replied his glowing friend before zooming his way towards the portal.

"Ha, I'll win this time too, you know!" – beamed Spyro as he ran after his little dragonfly friend, and soon they both disappeared in the mysterious portal, Spyro first (of course).

The dark, innocent clouds hovering above the Gnorc Realm, relieved that the tension has now gone, started pouring droplets of rain. Drip, drip, they went, and soon a downpour broke out and puddles and lakes of rainwater mixed with acid and rust were flowing everywhere. Muted by the pouring rain, a voice broke out of nowhere, echoing across the empty homeworld.

"Don't 'e late, young 'ragon. Don't 'e late."


	4. Chapter 3 - A Wizard Indeed

===Chapter 3: A Wizard Indeed===

The closer they got to the Dragon Realms, the more the black clouds and rain slowly transformed into a golden sunset's sunshine, illuminating trees from above the horizon, making their leaves so vividly green among the now dimmed landscape that it looked like they glowed. Wind brushed against Spyro's sides and under his wings, while Sparx shielded himself from it behind one of Spyro's spines. Though far away, Spyro could already see the distant sea of Gnorcs on the horizon, and it wasn't long before he made a beautiful aerodynamic loop in the air – no-one could see him, true, but it was still fun, even without the show-off part of the excitement – and landed on a rock sticking out among the Gnorcs. Not far away, they could see Gnasty Gnorc talking to one of the Dragon Elders – Nestor.

"Let me get this straight." – they could hear Nestor saying – "You want to move in here because there isn't enough space in your own realm for you?"

"Oh Sparx," – said Spyro with his face towards the ground – "will they ever stop talking and _do_ something, for once?"

"In your dreams. Speaking of which, I'm just gonna take a nap, if you don't mind." – replied the small dragonfly, making himself comfortable on the dragon's warm back.

Spyro sighed.

"Suit yourself, buddy." – he said, curling into a small, purple ball on the rock himself. His eyelids began to close, but Spyro snapped them open the moment he realised he was falling asleep. The sea of Gnorcs was still all around him, Gnasty and Nestor having their never-ending conversation somewhere further away. A small bunny came bouncing across the green grass – right beside the rock on which Spyro laid – and that was the last thing he saw before darkness surrounded him and filled his mind. No dreams came to him – only darkness, blackness, and…a voice in his head, saying: "Follow Gnasty, little dragon". Rays of light began to pierce through the darkness. There was deep silence, and Spyro felt cold. His eyes snapped open as he realised he slept late into the night – there were no more Gnorcs around him, only silvery light leaking from the full moon above.

"You all right, Spyro?" – came the familiar buzzing of a dragonfly – "You look awfully tense!"

"I don't suppose you know where Gnasty went, do you, Sparx?"

"No. Why would I want to?"

"I think we should follow him. A voice in my dream urged me to."

"Ohhhkay, just be careful."

Smelling and tasting the air for clues, Spyro ran across the green, juicy grass. As he sped through a tunnel in the Artisan Castle, he almost crashed into Gnasty, who stood at the end of it, surrounded by a bunch of black sheep. A shiver ran down Spyro's spine – _Nasty Dork plus black sheep equals trouble_ , thought Spyro. Despite technically being a ghost here, Spyro thought it would be safer if he stayed a couple of feet away from the meeting – he now knew some guys were somewhat able to sense him. Spyro recognised one or two of the sheep as being one of the few black sheep who once confronted him after his adventures in Avalar. But the others were foreign to him, including the biggest one with a malicious expression on its face, standing closest to the Gnorc. In fact, it seemed to be the most important one of them all.

"All right, let's do it!" – whispered Gnasty Gnorc, as quietly as a trumpet.

With a wave of his humungous wand, he flashed reddish light, so bright that Spyro had to cover his and Sparx's eyes with his wing. With the light now gone, Spyro pulled back his wing…and forgot to breathe. Pink and white clouds blurred his vision and he waved about a little, unable to keep balance, before coming to his senses again. For he saw the large sheep no more – but a small, brownish, rhynoc-like creature with an unmistakable, cold, hating stare. Ripto. Spyro stood there, staring taking it all in. He finally understood why the black sheep confronted him after he came back from Avalar. It wasn't because he toasted many of their relatives (that would have been strange – as much as dragons are predators indeed, they would never harm anyone if they didn't have to – they are not monsters; and no sheep ever approached a dragon for this reason). And indeed, this wasn't the reason. He has thrown their leader into raw lava! It also explained why Ripto hated dragons, but at the same time seemed to be afraid of Spyro and ran away from him. A faint, high-pitched laugh emerged from beside Spyro's right shoulder, bringing him down to earth.

"What is it, buddy?" – asked Spyro.

"Ripto! He's naked!" – replied Sparx.

Only now did Spyro actually notice, and, despite himself, a quiet laugh escaped his throat.

"So…now that…" – started Ripto, but was interrupted by Gnasty's trombone of a whisper.

"Quiet! I'll take us somewhere we can talk…in private." – he said.

Gnasty raised his ginormous sceptre above his head.

"Come on, Sparx!" - whispered Spyro urgently, running towards the duo of their enemies, still surrounded by the black sheep.

Just as Gnasty waved his sceptre, they got close enough so that the bright white flash absorbed Ripto, Gnasty, Spyro and Sparx. In the blink of an eye, Spyro found himself back in Gnasty's homeworld, once again choking on the acid air.

"Listen, sheep!" – boomed Gnasty Gnorc – "Here is the plan. The Year of the Dragon has begun exactly six days ago. That's when the dragons have laid their new eggs, ready to hatch…what's the time?..."

"Five minutes and ten and three quarters of a second past midnight." – replied Ripto with dignity.

"Yes. Exactly. So, as it stands, they are going to hatch today. I want you to go, retrieve every single dragon egg and bring it here to me. Then, I will smash them and crush them and tear them and grind them! I WILL find the purple-golden dragon, the only kind that is able to use the most powerful spells, wield the most powerful magic – I WILL find him, and I WILL cook him in my potion, and I WILL extract his magic, and the dragons WILL obey me, and I WILL be the most powerful villain in the entire Magic Universe! Mwahahahahahahaha *cough* *cough*"

Spyro closed his eyes as he suddenly didn't feel well.

"Spyro? Are you okay? Do you know who that dragon is?" – asked Sparx in an anxious voice.

"I'm OK, buddy, though I do feel like I'm gonna throw up. I think this dragon is…is…me."

Sparx was silent. It wasn't hard to realise that, indeed, Spyro was the only purple-golden dragon he's ever seen but, at the same time, how can they be talking about him if he isn't even supposed to be here, if he's from the, well, from their perspective, the future? Unless…unless… Sparx felt a knot in his stomach.

"Ah, yes." – replied the wizard – "The dragon that's born only once every 120 years. Very mean. Very mean and very crafty. But what's in it for me?"

"What do you mean, sheep!" – replied the Gnorc.

"Ripto, please." – replied the little rhynoc – "And which part of 'what will I get for helping you' don't you understand?"

Gnasty growled.

"You will cause havoc for the dragons, which you hate so much. Ain't that enough for you?"

Ripto considered.

"Would that be enough for you?" – backfired Ripto.

Gnasty's eyes narrowed and he slammed a heavy wrist against the wall.

"I'll give you the most powerful of the Power Crystals I possess." – said Gnasty between gritted teeth.

"Hmm…" – said Ripto – "OK. It's a deal. And how am I supposed to get over a hundred eggs here in only a couple of hours?"

"Ha!" – replied Gnasty before detaching the ginormous Power Crystal from his sceptre and, with a bright flash, changing it into a dark purple cape, which he shoved into Ripto's hands along with a small sceptre, which had a much smaller Power Crystal attached to it.

"This cape is the most powerful crystal I possess, but it cannot work by itself – it can only amplify the power of other Power Crystals. Take this sceptre – with your cape, it will be powerful enough to transport any egg you find with a single wave. To teleport it to me, just say 'hoppa deh smellgnorca' as you have it."

Without further ado, Ripto waved the wand to teleport himself back to the Dragon Realms. Sparx followed him.

"Wait, Sparx!" – called out Spyro – "He'll come back here anyway – let's not risk us staying behind in there!"

Sparx fluttered back to Spyro's side and the duo watched as Ripto disappeared in front of their eyes into thin air.


	5. Chapter 4 - An Eggcident

===Chapter 4: An Eggcident===


	6. Chapter 5 - The Spark

===Chapter 5: The Spark===


	7. Chapter 6 - The Flash Forward

===Chapter 6: The Flash Forward===


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